(The Center Square) – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has issued his second round of interim charges for Texas Senate committees to study ahead of the 90th legislative session, which begins in January.
He says they “reflect issues Texans have asked the Senate to study” and are “the priorities of Texas’ conservative majority.”
They include his plan to again increase the homestead exemption dubbed, “Operation Double Nickel,” which he says will provide “meaningful property tax relief.” Gov. Greg Abbott argues it won’t and has proposed a different plan that includes appraisal reform and other actions, The Center Square reported.
Patrick’s other legislative priorities include “reining in local government budget growth, eliminating fraud and abuse in state government, strengthening the Texas power grid, and promoting a sweeping Texas-first agenda,” he said.
When the legislative session begins in January, “the Texas Senate will move quickly to address these priorities, and many more,” he said, adding that more interim charges may be added in the coming months.
The interim charges are categorized by committee topic, including business and commerce, criminal justice, economic development, finance, health and human services, homeland and border security, local government, religious liberty and others.
Key energy topics include assessing the state of Texas’ grid, a transmission power line issue that appears to threaten private property rights and managing data center growth. Widespread opposition has been expressed to eminent domain potentially being used to take private land to advance data center growth, especially in rural communities, The Center Square reported.
As big tech expands, Artificial Intelligence development in education in Texas, another legislative priority focuses on “preparing the Texas workforce in AI.”
After pushing for a school choice program Patrick and other Republicans argued would help public school students be able to attend private schools, one legislative priority relates to “shifting enrollment, right-sizing” public schools. The overwhelming majority of school choice program applicants are current private school students, The Center Square reported.
Patrick states that in response to public schools reporting declining enrollment, unrelated to the school choice program, he directed the Senate to examine the impact and identify ways to maximize the use of taxpayer money. Enrollment has dropped from 5.54 million to 5.47 million public students in the last two years, according to state data.
Another directive is to “Review the 200+ districts who utilize a 4-day school week or other hybrid models and the related learning loss in reading and math. Study the effect of academic schedules, in particular the decline of school days, and its impact on students and families.”
In a separate announcement, Patrick assigned new committee chairs and created three new select committees, including one on religious liberty.
Patrick has been heavily criticized, and the Trump administration is being sued, over decisions Patrick made as chair of the federal Religious Liberty Commission. Two women, a Roman Catholic and a Muslim, were forced off the commission after raising questions and holding differing opinions than Patrick’s. They argue he did not allow for their own religious freedom and freedom of conscious on a commission tasked with insuring it. The lawsuit argues the commission doesn’t represent all faiths and has violated several federal laws, The Center Square reported. Patrick has declined to comment.
His interim charges don’t address what he previously claimed the commission would address, “that many Americans, and Texans alike, do not fully understand their God-given religious liberty rights secured under the First Amendment.” He said he appointed Select Committee on Religious Liberty members “to find ways to educate Texans on their religious liberty rights and to make sure Texans do not have those rights infringed upon.”
The interim charges task committee members with monitoring already enacted laws related to requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments and allowing prayer in schools. The Ten Commandment law is currently in litigation.
The interim charges expand on a handful of charges Patrick announced in January, including his top legislative priority to ban Sharia law. The key theme of banning Sharia law has been a priority of Texas Republicans at the state and federal level over the last several months, The Center Square reported.
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows has also announced his own interim charges, ranging from tax relief, to regulatory and insurance reform, among others.
